Friday, October 7, 2011

Our last Wine Tasting of the season is this Thursday, October 20, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. If it's warm we'll be in the courtyard! Our theme is "Wines from around the Boot," with four wines from four different wine regions in Italy. We're featuring some obscure varietals, and you can compare and contrast the varietals from these different appellations. Our wine host is Joe Barsotti of Barsotti Wines. The price on this one is $55 per person. As always, we feature live entertainment and we pair these special wines with heavy hors d'oeuvres from our chefs Pete & Mike. And as always, we give you the three finger pour and more!

Here's our wines:

Cantine Lenotti de Veneizie(Veneto 2010)

Cantine Sampietrana Negroamaro (Puglia 2008)

Cantine Ippolito Classico Superiore Reserva Ciro (Calabria 2007)

Donato D'Angelo Vitis Divina Rosso (Basilicata 2008)

We'll also be tasting two Italian "liquori," Gazio Amaretto and Latinae Sambuca.

E-mail or call Gene Lucente for tickets: gene@thepriory.com or (412) 224-6300. Hope you can make it!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Our Priory Grand Hall banquet management team will be featured on the "Consumer Sense" program on Tuesday, October 11th. The show airs at 7:30 p.m. on PCNC, the Pittsburgh Cable News Channel, from 7:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. PCNC is Channel 35 on Comcast and Channel 9 on Verizon here in Pittsburgh. The show is hosted by Duquesne University marketing professor Audrey Guskey, who is really delightful and who made our staffers feel comfortable while being interviewed for television. Look for our Grand Hall GM Walter Czapliewicz, Heather McDowell, our wedding sales specialist, and Gene Lucente, who does our corporate sales. Tune in on Tuesday! And if you miss it, keep your eyes opened for repeats.

Consumer $en$e helps consumers save time and money while getting the inside scoop on consumer trends and marketing tricks. Explore DRAUDREYGUSKEY.COM for consumer reports on a broad range of topics, and don’t forget to tune in to ¢on$umer $en$e on PCNC!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

I was recently on KDKA TV's Pittsburgh Live television program to discuss our Winter White Wedding giveaway to a military member who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan. The contest, now in its fourth year, gives away a full wedding reception completely free of charge. The winner is drawn at random from among couples who have submitted an application. The criteria only are that one member of the couple be from the seven county Pittsburgh region and that one member of the couple served in Iraq or Afghanistan as a member of a branch of the military.

Monday, October 3, 2011

We recently hosted "A Night for Tassy II," a fundraiser to assist in bringing to young Haitian children to Pittsburgh for much needed surgery and medical care. The original Night for Tassy was held last year, and raised funds to bring Tassy Filsaime, a 19 year old from Haiti who was suffering from a massive tumor on his mouth, to Pittsburgh. He had a successful surgery at Allegheny General Hospital here on the North Side and is now attending school here in the Pittsburgh area. The Night for Tassy II was a rousing success, raising more than $20,000 to bring two young children to Pittsburgh from Port au Prince.

The event was sponsored by Team Tassy, an ad hoc organization founded by Rosenberger and a group of friends, which is dedicated to providing medical aid to individual youths in Haiti, with the goal of using medical care to leverage assisting the whole family. For more information, or to donate, point your browser to www.teamtassy.org.

About Me

I have been involved full time with the Priory Hospitality Group since 2002. Currently, I serve as President and CEO, overseeing our various interests, including the Priory Hotel, Pittsburgh's Grand Hall at the Priory, Priory Fine Pastries, Priory Hotel Consulting, LLC (our consulting arm), Priory Hotel Management, LLC (our hotel management company arm) and our real estate development operations, which includes a building housing a new Rita's Italian Ice in the neighborhood.
I have been married for nearly 28 years to Suzanne Graf, who is also an owner of the Priory Hospitality Group. We have four children - Laura (21), Will (20), Max (20) and Charlie (13), and live in the Borough of Ben Avon, about 6 miles to the West of The Priory.